CHRIST OUR NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

Hello and welcome to yet another time with God, it is my prayer that we will hear God speak to us today again. Amen.

Today, we will be considering the topic, “Christ our Natural Environment” as we study the following scriptures; Gen. 1:11 – 12, 20 – 22, 24 – 25, 26 – 28. 

The story of creation as recorded in the book of Genesis gives us a detailed information on how everything was created hence we are best guided when we derive our guide from it. 

At times, the creation story seems to be one of the scriptures over-looked but for the purpose of this teaching, we will be looking at this same story closely.

I want to start by saying that everything that God created were all made to fit into a particular environment. 

In the book of Genesis 1:11 – 12 God said, “Let the earth produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.” And it was so. The earth produced vegetation: seed-bearing plants according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

God created the vegetation, plants, fruit trees according to their kind by speaking to the earth; the earth here is the Hebrew word אֶרֶץ ‘erets’ which is literally translated as the Land and by extension the Earth. The earth which was the source of the plants and the vegetation became their habitation hence the easiest way to kill a plant is by removing its roots from the soil.

God spoke to the Land to produce plants and vegetation because it was God’s intention that the plants and the vegetation’s should derive their sustainability from the land.

In V. 20 – 22 God said, “Let the water swarm with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” So God created the large sea-creatures and every living creature that moves and swarms in the water, according to their kinds...and God saw that it was good. So God blessed them, “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters of the seas...

Again we see God speaking to the waters to produce the living creatures which included the fish and other living creatures in the water; the implication of this is that the fish inhabits the water and cannot spend an hour outside the water, the water is the natural environment of the fish and other creatures that dwell in the water, from the water the fish derives its source of life.

Also in V. 24 – 25 God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that crawl, and the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. So God made the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and creatures that crawl on the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

God created the wild life by speaking to the earth and the livestock’s too, and they all derive their sustainability from their habitation but when it can to man, God did not speak to the earth nor the waters but as recorded in V.26 – 28, God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.” God spoke to himself in other to create man.

while God created other living things by speaking to the things that he has made which served as their source of life, God made man by speaking to Himself so that He will be mans source of life.

The birds of the air feed on the crops that grow in their habitation, the plants feed on the land which is their habitation and the fish feed on the shrubs that grow in the water because that was Gods purpose for them but for man, God created him so that he will derive his living from him God.

Note here that I am talking about the real you, the spirit man; man is a tripartite being hence man constitute of the Spirit Soul and Body Gen. 2:7, 1 Thessalonians 5:23. 

The formation of man was in two ways, God made man from the dust and breath into the man He has made; the man which is made of the dust (the flesh) depends on the earth to be sustained, but the spirit man which was born out of God’s word and breath derives his living from God; God was the natural environment of man until the time he sinned against Him.

From the account of Genesis 3:8 we understand that it is in the nature of God to come down in the cool of the evening to know how man was doing. But man stopped depending on God the moment he decided to take advice from Satan the deceiver, the implication of this divergence of contingency and dependability is that man decided to sew fig leaves to cover himself because he felt that God’s purpose for him was not sufficient therefore he needed something more than what God has made available for him Gen. 3:4 – 6.

The moment man decided to disengage himself from God who is his source of existence, nutrients of life which can only be supplied by God seized to be available for man due to mans disobedience and disconnection from his source of life (God).

God planted a garden by himself and placed man therein Gen.2:8 the garden was designed by God to provide man with everything he needed to live his life for him. But when man sinned against God, he was asked to leave the same garden where he has lived and derived his source of life Gen. 3:22 – 23.

The result of man leaving the garden is that his life found another environment that is no-longer a garden but of thorns Gen. 3:18; hence the outcome of this separation between God and man is this;

• Cain killed Abel, Gen. 4
• Mans wickedness became on bearable for God Gen. 6.

God has designed man to live his life all through depending on Him God, but the moment we detach ourselves from God, the outcome is always our inability to bear fruit but thorns which manifest itself in the various sinful acts and attitude we display now and then.

Maybe you are a Christian who has stopped depending on God through your lifestyle, your thoughts and your words; I want to announce to you that your life cannot be any better than thorns as long as you are not in the vine John 15:4.

The consequences of not abiding in Christ is man’s entanglement with sin and worldly pleasures, which is caused due to lack of God in our life, 2 John 1:9a states that Everyone who goes on ahead and does not remain in the teaching of Christ does not have God.

God has made the provision for our reunion with Him our natural environment, sin took us away from God Gen 3:8,23; Isa. 59:1 – 3 through Adam but Jesus Christ has been made available for us through believing in Him. 1Cor. 15:45 John 3:16.

In the book of John 15 Jesus’s analogy of the Vine and its branches under-covers the facts that we are created to remain in a particular environment; from the preceding verses, Jesus stated that he is that particular environment which we must remain in if we are to bear fruit. 

Using the Greek word μένω “meno” which is literary translated as to remain, abide, stay, await, continue and endure Jesus expressed the need for us to continue with Him, however Jesus usage of this word ‘abide’ also means that we have at a point stop abiding hence He saw the need to encourage us to continue abiding.

How do we Abide in Christ Our Environment?

Then Jesus said to those Judeans who had believed him, “If you continue to follow my teaching, you are really my disciples John 8:31. 

The one and only way to remain in Christ after we have believed is to continue in following the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ which contains His eternal will for us all. 1 John 2:6 states that “the one who says he resides in God ought himself to walk just as Jesus walked.” 

If you are in the Church and you believed that you are in Christ but your life is void of the will and leading of Christ, your life has not been fine-tuned to constantly obeying the will of God then you cannot for sure say that you are abiding in Christ “Everyone who goes on ahead and does not remain in the teaching of Christ does not have God” 2 John 1:9a therefore to continue abiding, you must continue in the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ after you have received Him into your life, you must practically live out the word of God in your daily living. 

The second part of 2 John 1:9 states that “the one who remains in this teaching has both the Father and the Son”

Beloved, I want you to note that Adam and Eve our First parents stopped abiding in God their natural environment when they sinned against God through disobedience, when you continue to live your life in disobedience to the word of God, when you live your life in iniquity hiding under the cover Gods nature as a merciful father, you fornicate, commit adultery, lie, keep malice, fraud people and do all kinds of things, you are repeating the same mistake that Adam and Eve made.

God is calling you today to come back to Him for you will surely die if you refuse to come back to your root Christ. Just as the fish will die outside water, so will all who has removed themselves from Christ through their sinful lives die eternally.

I pray that God will help us to fix back our roots to the vine Jesus Christ who is our source of life. Amen.